One issue with Greyhawk is that it's many different things to many different people. To me, Greyhawk is a much lower-power setting than, say, FR with its 18th-level archmages and magic items readily available for sale. One of the things I've always hated is the notion that PCs can just stroll into town and buy whatever kinds of magic items they want, as if magic were just a cheap, tradeable commodity. Whether or not the lower-powered feel of Greyhawk would appeal to more modern gamers, when magic item creation is so much easier and magic shops are almost an inherent part of the game, is entirely up in the air.
Part of the problem with Greyhawk canon is that a lot of it is extremely garbled and contradictory, not to mention that so much of it is just plain
bad. Many Greyhawkers are, shall we say, hostile to the idea of an ongoing metaplot or official changes that seem dictated from on high. It's why many Greyhawk fans (including myself) despise the Greyhawk Wars as written...and I'm not particularly fond of many of the changes wrought by Living Greyhawk, either, and so I don't consider them canon. One of the biggest critiques Greyhawkers have launched at FR was its ongoing metaplot, which many of us viewed as being dictated from on high, personal campaigns be damned.
Up to EGG's departure from the company, Greyhawk had a tradition of only "changing" through modules that the PCs could directly participate in, with the DMs applying the results as written to their campaigns. Otherwise, there was little hint of an ongoing metaplot or changes wrought by NPCs that altered the status quo. Making radical changes to Greyhawk was the job of the individual gaming group.
All this ties back into the notion of what point in the timeline a new Greyhawk release would be placed. It could be rewound to 576 CY, restoring the old status quo. Needless to say, that wouldn't prevent a steady supply of modules and sourcebooks that further flesh out various parts of the setting from being released...it's just that the timeline would never be advanced and every book would assume a base setting of 576 CY. Historical information released by subsequent generations of writers and Living Greyhawk could be integrated where they fit, but otherwise the status quo remains as Gygax wrote it. Essentially, we'd have the old boxed set all over again, but this time much more fleshed out, detailled and given an overall flashier treatment along the lines of what FR has gotten the last few years.
That would be my preferred way of doing things. But part of the problem is that Greyhawkers are also notoriously divided on
where exactly the setting should be frozen at. Some fans love the Greyhawk Wars, others hate them. Some people would want to integrate the changes wrought by Living Greyhawk, others would not. Some fans would want to integrate changes such as magic shops, dragonborn, eladrin and tieflings, while others (including myself) would rather go skydiving without a parachute.
With all that in mind, I think Greyhawk would work best as a grimmer, grittier setting that reinforces many of the traditional D&D and Tolkien stereotypes, where magic items are rarer, characters tend to be of lower level, and the setting is otherwise frozen unless the DM and players decide to change it themselves. In some respects, I think it would work as a meat-and-potatoes setting for gamers who don't like the very high power levels of other settings.
Emphasizing the shades of grey, the lower power level, and the traditional "swords and sorcery" nature of the setting, and you might find a niche for Greyhawk that other worlds don't really fill.
And before anyone accuses me of being a crotchety old-timer, please note that I'm actually only 28 years old. I just happen to prefer the lower power levels, where +1 swords are rare and cherished treasures and being 7th level means you really stand out in a crowd. I also like being able to do what I want without having a metaplot breathing down my neck-if you read my stuff at Canonfire, you'll see that a lot of what I write knowingly violates canon. I take what I want and then toss out the rest, which is the attitude I hope people take with anything I write. If they like the whole thing, great, but if they just take the bits they want and toss out the rest, then I consider it mission accomplished.
